The psychosomatic effect is just as powerful though. Remember that
most people do not experience any negative reaction as a result of
allergies to common products such as diet soft drinks.
If you believe that something will get you up tight, then it probably
will. A tendency to blame unrelated physical causes on our anxiety and
panic can lead to agoraphobia, so its important to be warey of this
also.
On the other hand, if you read some of the stuff I have posted about
air swallowing, it is proven that many of us tend to swallow more air
when anxious, which can lead to a bloated stomach and chest, which
can give a sensation of laboured breathing. This can cause you to
overbreath and thus induce hyperventilation, and
thus be a physical trigger for panic.
Carbonated soft drinks can cause a similar effect in some people. I
personally dont have much of a problem with them, so long as I burp
after drinking them that is :)
As for caffeine, this definitely gets some people more keyed up than
normal and can increase anxiety. If you are on luvox (fluvoxamine),
more specifically, it is scientifically proven that the duration and
intensity of caffeine is magnified by around 5 times on a standard
100mg dosage.
This means if you have a cup of coffee you are actually having 5, and 2
cups, 10. You can imagine how that must feel!
